2011 12 dec - Constructors Car Club

Spare Parts
December 2011 Issue 11 Volume 24
On the cover: The President’s report on the
club trip to the Wairarapa on Page 6.
In this issue
Club Officials
Club minutes
Coming events...........................................2
Tuesday 8 November 2011.......................3
President: Phillip Bradshaw
Secretary: Dave Clout
Editorial....................................................4
Club Captain: Richard Kelly
CCC Event Calendar.................................5
Treasurer: Stewart Collinson
The President’s Page..................................6
Club Meetings
This month’s mystery car........................12
The Constructors Car Club Inc meets at
7.30pm on the second Tuesday of each month
at The Vintage Car Club, 3 Halford Place,
Petone (Eastern end of Jackson Street).
This month’s mystery motor-man............12
Prospective members or others interested in
building their own cars are welcome to attend.
(The club does request a donation of $2
towards running the meeting, and includes a
raffle ticket. Meetings generally include a guest
speaker or demonstration followed by general
discussion and supper.)
The Club Magazine “Spare Parts” is produced
monthly from February to December each
year. Contributions and advertisements are
welcomed.
Last month’s mystery car.........................13
MG Classis Race Meeting 2012..............14
The Seventh Plague.................................16
MG Classic Racing at Manfeild .............24
Visit to Speedtech....................................29
Lotus 7 Series 4 1973 to 1978.................32
Wiring Woes...........................................36
Lotus Super 907 1977 to 1981................38
Car club website classifieds.....................42
Who’s who December 2011....................44
Cut-off date for contributions for the next magazine is Tuesday 31 January 2012.
Send contributions to Brian by email: [email protected] or to Secretary
by ordinary mail.
Club Correspondence to:
The Secretary, Constructors Car Club, PO Box 38 573, Wellington Mail Centre, Lower Hutt 5045
Editor: Brian Worboys, phone: (04) 476 3799, [email protected]
Printing: The Colour Guy, 10 Raroa Cres, Lower Hutt, phone: (04) 570 0355
Design and typesetting: Tanya Sooksombatisatian, [email protected]
Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Constructors Car Club (Inc).
Coming events
Sunday December 18th
coming along.
Road & Track meeting at Manfeild.
Tuesday 14 February 2012
You can enter either dual or single sprints,
or clubman races. This is a great way to
get some competitive motorsport track
experience without the risks of “real”
racing.
Monday 23 January 2012
Wellington Anniversary Weekend,
MG Car Club Picnic Day, Manfeild
Autocourse
This is their annual picnic day at Manfeild.
Very low-key fun day where you get to circulate around the racetrack in controlled
circumstances. Our members are invited
each year.
Tuesday 10 January 2012
Club Night
Speaker – None.
Vehicle – None.
Casual night – great chance for any out
of town members in Wellington to catch
up with locals. We are going to make the
theme this year “bring along any interesting books you own that you would like to
share with other members”. This way they
can skim through your books and see if
they might like to buy their own copy. A
local bookseller has expressed interest in
Club Night – Skite Night
Speaker – None.
Vehicle – None.
Casual night – that time of the year again
where members are encouraged to bring
along their partially completed projects
plus those already on the road and park
up on the grass area surrounding the VCC
club rooms. We normally have a BBQ
going …
Saturday 25/Sunday 26
February 2012
Sam’s Manawatu Tour
Full details coming soon, so keep this
weekend free.
Sunday 25 March 2012
Club Run
Including Southwards Museum and a
private Studebaker collection in Otaki.
Full details will be disclosed closer to
the date.
Open Invitation from VCC :
Wednesdays – 9.00am to 4.00pm, tea &
coffee, meet members of VCC in their club
rooms for a chat – any retired members
with time or members on leave …
Friday Nights – 7.30pm to 10.00pm,
Drinks, chat and spares room open …
drop in, you may even catch them on a
film evening.
Club minutes Tuesday 8 November 2011
1. Welcome/Visitors:
Mark Bouzaid – owner of Mini Trucks
in Johnsonville – air bag suspension
specialist
opportunity to send in an article for the
magazine as they show their knowledge of
motoring personnel.
Too easy – Chris Amon
2. Coming Events:
10. Buy, Sell, Swap:
12/13 Sat/Sun November – MG Classic at
Manfeild.
17th November Thursday – Visit to
Speedtech
Also Xmas run on Sunday 20 November
to Tin Hut, Tauherenikau.
3. Treasurers Report:
Stewart – gave a brief report, we are still
financial.
4. Committee Report:
Nothing this month ?
5. Technical Committee
Report:
Someone must have given a comment –
I forgot to write it down …
6. Technical Questions:
Ditto above.
7. Magazine:
Brian asked for articles.
Members please note – they should fill
in a form before the meeting (available
from kitchen bench) if they want details
recorded in the next magazine minutes.
Patrick was given a few minutes to introduce his new revised book on NZ kit
cars and homebuilts. He was taking orders
on the night.
11. General Business:
Didn’t record any …
12. Tool of the month:
Sam Hunter had brought along a piston
from a wartime V12 Allison aircraft that
crashed in 1942. We can rely on Sam to
bring something of interest!
13. Guest Speaker:
Our guest speaker from the Serious Crash
Unit didn’t manage to make the meeting
– next year maybe.
14. Guest Vehicle:
Last month (October) – Matt Cooley correctly guessed a Jensen 541 on the night.
This month (November) – Tim
Hutchinson – Simca, Jon Loar – Peugeot,
Matthew ? – an Indian Morris Oxford.
Richard Kelly brought his recently purchased “toy” into the rooms. A 2004 E46
CS BMW, 3.4 litres of straight 6, upgraded
brakes, 19” wheels and 340hp at the rear
wheels via a 6 speed manual gearbox.
Cost to the first buyer – $238k ! an ex All
Black !
9. Mystery Man:
15. Raffle:
A new feature in the magazine. Guess the
name of person in the photo. Just a bit of
fun for answering on the night, though
no doubt some members will use it as an
Number: 4
Name of winner: Patrick Harlow
Still owe Marvin from previous raffle.
8. Mystery Car:
Meeting closed at 8.54pm
Editorial by Brian Worboys
Lead, don’t follow
Basically, this club is here to help people
realize their dreams. You always wanted
to be able to buy a Lamborghini but the
sticker price was like, on another planet. So
you make yourself one instead. You always
dreamt of driving round in your own supercar and now you can. Good for you.
This is all good but it is paying homage
to motoring history when we are actually in a position to be able to pioneer the
future. After all, you don’t really need to
build an open topped sportscar anymore
as there are any amount of good MX5’s
out there at a fraction of the cost of building one. But you try and buy an electric car
for a reasonable price or a car that can go
30km on a litre of gas. These must be the
cars of the future and as a car constructor,
you could be part of this future.
LVVTA are currently putting together
the alternative standard for electric cars.
Our technical committee has been looking
over the draft and making some suggestions as part of the consultative process.
One thing that becomes obvious here is
that there are problems in converting an
existing vehicle to electrical power (e.g.
the extra weight of the batteries) that just
don’t exist when you scratch build a car as
an electric right from the start.
It worries me that our lifestyles are
becoming more and more dependent on
everyone having personal transport; our
commuting distances are getting greater,
the vehicles are getting bigger, the cost of
fuel will always go up and family income
is not keeping pace. Dare I suggest: there
are other things in life and we can’t let
the cost of transport rob resources that
should be going to community health, education, family and the welfare of future
generations.
Your task, should you accept it, is to
provide that personal transport at better
than 80mpg (or 3.5 L/100km). And I don’t
mean go out and by a 50cc scooter. This
has to be something safe, comfortable and
convenient that your mother would drive.
It needs to be able to take a passenger or
two and cruise comfortably at 110 kph.
You wont get this by modifying an old
Suzuki Alto. This is a real scratch-building challenge. Obviously the engine will
The Eco-exo is a British kit car that uses parts
from the 650cc Suzuki Burgman Motorscooter
25 HP Diesel V-twin with 5-speed gearbox from
a Chinese mail-order website
need to be as small as you can get away
with. Nevil reckons you can do it with just
a 250cc motorbike engine but I feel a bit
more than this might be needed. A slippery body is unavoidable, but lying down
in a kind of rocket sled is way too inconvenient and uncomfortable not to mention
dangerous in traffic.
Where do parts come for a project like
this? Motorcycles are an obvious source
and Quad-bikes now offer five speeds and
reverse and nice little wishbone suspensions with disk brakes. There are motor
scooters with 400cc engines and auto
transmissions for parts. Surfing Chinese
export websites yields all sorts of handy
looking drive-train components intended
for tuk-tuk type vehicles.
The world might have enough overpowered Lotus 7s already. The age of the
cycle-car is returning.
CCC Event Calendar
Month
January
Tue 10
February Tue 14
March
Tue 13
Club Night
Book Night – Bring along
books for others to peruse
and any books/magazines
you wish to go to a new
home
Skite Night (show off your
car or project) & Buy/Sell/
Swap meet
Club Night
Tech Night/Other
N/A
N/A
Sat 3
Sun 4
TBC
Overnight Manawatu Project
Tour Club Run. Note change
of date.
Southwards Car Museum &
Sun 25
Otaki Studebaker Museum
TBC
Day Trip
The President’s Page by Phil Bradshaw
I subscribe to two car magazines, with
‘NZ Rodder’ being one. I noted from
reading the latest edition that the NZ Hot
Rod Association (NZHRA) is currently
celebrating its 50th anniversary. The other
magazine I get delivered is the American
publication ‘Street Rodder’. I know from
reading this one that there are a number
of American hotrod clubs celebrating 50th
anniversaries, with others approaching
their 75th.
CCC turns 24 in March, with planning
for the 2013 25th anniversary car show
progressing nicely. A quarter of a century
is a long time for a club to be in existence,
and it is a real credit to founding members
that their club vision has been enduring.
As the club gets older so do we, and sadly
a few members have passed away in recent
times. Others have drifted away, but we
have also had a number of new members
join with the result that the current club
membership is just shy of 180, which is
about the same as it was this time last year.
Cars parked up at the Tin Hut for lunch
To my mind this is a good size – we get a
good turn out to each club night and the
various activities are also well attended.
The club peaked at close to 250 a number
of years ago which was largely the result
of an influx of members following one of
the previous car shows.
To those who have recently joined the
club – welcome. We will aim to run some
articles in Spare Parts next year on the
build process from a scrutineering and certification perspective, but in the meantime
if you have any questions please contact a
member of the technical committee, who
are identified in the membership listing at
the back of the magazine.
I was in Auckland recently and caught
up with my friend Colin (who is building
a Lexus powered ‘34 Coupe) and some of
his mates who are in various hotrod clubs.
It struck me that their clubs are very much
focused on getting out and about enjoying
your car, with a heavy emphasis on the social
aspects (all their clubrooms seem to have
bars). By comparison I see CCC’s focus is
very much on the build side, which flavours
the nature of activities we undertake.
Whilst in Auckland I also caught up
with my friend Jono, who is nearing completion of his competition 4WD Hilux
race truck. If he lived closer I would get
his truck along to a club night in a heartbeat. On face value one could justifiably
ask how a Hilux could ever be relevant to
our membership; the simple answer is: this
is no ordinary Hilux.
The specification is amazing – full
spaceframe chassis, custom fibreglass
body, mid mounted twin turbo Lexus
V8 (pointing the wrong way and hence
driving forwards via a 5 speed auto into
a custom built transfer case), massive suspension travel and so on. There are hardly
any components on the truck that are not
custom made or modified. It will weigh
about 1600 kg when finished. The initial
state of tune will be 550HP, with the
plan being to increase to 750HP once the
chassis is sorted and he has come to terms
with driving it. That is a higher power to
weight ratio than a V8 Supercar…
Did I mention it is also 7 feet wide and
geared to attain 240km/h – on dirt…?
Whilst the truck is about as far removed
as you could get from any one of our cub
cars, the parallels are striking – economical design, modification and utilisation
of factory components in ways they were
never intended, form following function
and built largely at home.
The committee is developing the club
calendar for next year with (fingers
crossed) a number of visits planned to
check out unique vehicles that, like Jono’s
truck, have far more in common with our
club’s objectives than you might at first
suspect. We are also looking into some
visits to specialised companies that offer a
range of services you probably would have
never considered utilising in your build,
until you see the potential they unlock.
The tech night at Speedtech Motor Sport
(STM) on 17 November was attended by
over 30 people. Andre Simon gave an
excellent presentation on the GM LS’X’
series of V8s that are commonly known
as ‘Gen 3’ or ‘Gen 4’. This was followed
by a demonstration of their shop car (a
VE SS Commodore with factory fitted L98
engine and 6 speed auto trans) on their
Dynapack dynamometer.
Over the past two years STM has been
modifying an increasing number of these
engines with the result that they have developed a progressive 3-stage upgrade programme. Their shop car has the full stage
3 package which costs a little under $10k
but results in ~425kW at the flywheel,
which is a massive increase over stock.
The upgrade is largely a combination of
a replacement intake system, exhaust and
camshaft plus an ECU re-flash tune up.
I had a quick look online and you could
potentially get one of these engines for
around $10k landed in NZ out of the
USA, and maybe even much less. For that
money you would get the engine complete
with a transmission and ECU etc. A reflash tune itself is around $1000, which
would be wise in order to get the engine to
run properly as a transplant.
I think this merits serious consideration
– if you compare this to a Lexus V8 conversion (especially one custom mated to a
manual trans) then I suspect the delta in
cost to get the LS’X’ engine in the car and
running would actually be relatively small.
More importantly the 1UZ-FE is very expensive to get additional power from, with
an aftermarket ECU becoming a necessity. If
you have an ambition of even 250-300kW
(let alone 425kW) then I suspect you will
find the LS’X’ series of engines will be the
more cost effective option.
Although we may primarily be a construction focused club, fellowship and
getting out and about is important too.
About 30 attended the end of year club
run was held on Sunday 20 November
and went into the southern Wairarapa.
The low key day included an inspection of
Shane Atkinson’s Jaguar XK120 restoration project and his Honda race car. This
was followed by a BBQ lunch at The Tin
Hut, where we sat outside at BBQ tables
basking in the superb weather.
The day was finished off with an update
on Ken Rayne’s sports racer project, which
we last saw on the mid year project tour.
Ken is making good progress with making
the mould off his body plug, and at least
one club member is considering bribing
Ken for a copy of his body shell, which is
reminiscent of a Porsche 917 CANAM car.
I also attended the official opening of
the LVVTA’s new building in Porirua on
Wednesday 24 November. The club was
well represented with three club cars on
display and their owners plus our certifiers. As part of the opening ceremony
four special awards were presented, recognising those who had been pivotal in
establishing what has morphed into our
current system. In listening to the citations
and speeches form the recipients who
were present it became very apparent that,
despite any minor reservations and issues
we may have with the certification system,
Alex had the
demonstrator Almac
Clubsport out for a run
Jon Loar’s Ford
After lunch we popped across the road to check
progress on Ken Raynes’s race car project
The back end of
Ross’s Ferrari replica
Always a head-turner
– Dennis’ Swallow
Roy’s Heron, now 12 years on the road and still
looking like new
Pat’s Almac Sabre now repowered and recertified
we have what is probably the best system
in the world.
This message was reinforced by US Hot
Rodding icon Pete Chapouris, who was
present and said a few words. His presence
was an unexpected bonus for me and it is
very apparent when you hear him speak
why he is such a legend.
The club nights early in the New Year
warrant a little explanation, especially for
those new to the club or who may be passing
through on holiday. The club meets 12
months a year, so there will be a club night
on Tuesday 10 January. This meeting kicks
off the year in a relaxed manner and is also a
‘book night’ whereby you are encouraged to
bring along any unique, rare, interesting or
just plain useful books that you have.
The idea is to give other members the
chance to peruse books they may have
seen online but are uncertain of committing to buy without being able to browse
through them, or a chance to find which
book on a particular subject is the definitive work. It is also a chance to dust off
some classic or collectable works you may
have that few get the chance to see. I’d
also suggest you consider bringing along
any magazines or books you want to pass
on to a new home.
February’s meeting is the traditional
‘Skite Night’ whereby members bring
along their club cars (and many trailer
in their projects) to show to the wider
membership.
To this end I have finally managed to
strip my V8 Supra, which was precipitated
by the clutch failing on the last stage of
the mid year project tour. It turns out the
clutch fork fatigued and broke – I guess
50,000 km with a 2100 lb clamp clutch
will do that.
Over and above the household rebuild I
hope to achieve during an extended summer
holiday I also aim to clear out some of the
10
surplus car ‘treasure’ and make a bit of
headway with a car project, with a view
to dragging something along in February. I
encourage you to do the same.
It never ceases to amaze me what things
are worth – case in point was the rubber
strips that fit into the roof seam on the
Toyota Altezza wreck I bought as a driveline donor for the Anglia project. Following
high interest in my TradeMe ad I listed the
left and right strips separately. The right
hand one sold for the reserve of $10, whilst
the left hand one sparked a bidding war
that resulted in it selling for $50. Likewise
the rear ashtray sold for five times what I
thought was a cheeky reserve of $10!
Suggestions and feedback on the club
are important; it is hard to second guess
what interests the membership without it.
Likewise a broad representation on the
club’s committees is critical to our success
– the future of the club lies with its membership and you don’t have to wait until
the AGM to become involved. We currently have three committees:
• The Club Committee, which deals with
the running and administration of the
events, activities and club overall.
• The Technical Committee, which is the
conduit for the club to have a voice
with the Low Volume Vehicle Technical
Association and thus ensure our car
building and modification interests and
concerns are heard.
• The 25th Anniversary Car Show
Organising Committee, which is self
explanatory.
As much as I am looking forward to celebrating the club’s 25th anniversary in 18
month’s time, I am looking forward to the
Clubs 50th anniversary even more. Have a
great festive season and I look forward to
seeing you in the New Year.
Phil Bradshaw
President
Club members inspect Shane’s XK120
restoration project
The newly painted body arrived back in the
garage from the painter’s just the week before
Items of interest including the Jag grill which
had been rebuilt with one less bar in order to fit
the shape of the body better
Shane’s offer to the club of the rotisserie he
used for the Jag restore is quickly accepted
Dave and Sandra share a moment, no doubt
remembering the hours they put into their own
very creditable Jag project
11
This month’s mystery car
This is a competition. Do you know what this vehicle is?
Please provide country of origin, manufacturer, model name and number and other
distinguishing details.
Have a go. Announce your best guess at this month’s club meeting and get it recorded
in the minutes, or email it to The Editor. The winner will be announced in the next
issue of Spare Parts. Extra points will be awarded for any additional interesting relevant
information, pictures etc. provided.
This month’s mystery motor-man
Who is this? Do you know his name?
Have a guess.
Then turn to page 28 for the answer.
12
Last month’s mystery car
Wow… For a scruffy picture from a Delhi
back street, we certainly got some good
answers.
Matt Bull offered at the club night…
“an Indian version of something British
from he 70’s”… Matt had recognized the
Triumph-like grill, and after a little searching he sent in the following:
In 1971 the Herald was remodelled (bodily) by Nasir Hussein
as the Standard Gazel, with a different grille and headlights set far
apart, purportedly inspired from the
Triumph Herald 13/60. It received a
new, more sober rear end with low
horizontal rectangular tail-lights and
without the characteristic tailfins of
the Herald designed by Michelotti. It
received a rear-axle copied from the
Triumph Toledo, replacement of the
Herald’s front bucket seats with a
bench, and underwent the retrograde
move of replacing the shifter with a
long-crank version (as found in the
Standard Ten). However, the engine
was the same 948 cc single carb.
[source: Wikipedia]
Kevin Gill was also right on the money…
As a founder member of the
Wellington Triumph Sportscar Club
in 1983, I have rather a comprehensive archive of all things Triumph, so
I know that one!
Its a Standard Gazel, from India,
based originally on a Triumph Herald
but with the Toledo Live axle, made
up to 1977-78 depending on what you
read. For some strange reason they
stuck with the 948cc, when clearly a
1500 would be better!!!!!!!!!!
13
MG Classis Race Meeting 2012
by Jonathan Hogg
The lead up to this years MG meeting did
not go too smoothly for us, the 4AGE red
top in our ALMAC 7 which came from an
unknown mileage Jap import wreck had
been slowly loosing interest in me thrashing
it around Manfeild.
So back in August we bought a Brian
Crower stroker kit from the USA, this comes
with steel crank, rods, pistons and bearings
and lifts the capacity up to about 1760cc.
We also bought a $50.00 donor engine
from Trademe. After many conversations
we different people we settled with a local
engine builder to put it altogether and to be
fair I left my run to get it all done to late.
So at the CCC Trackday this was to
be the engines last run, unfortunately the
gearbox got jealous of all this attention
being lavished on the engine and after the
track day we drained the gearbox oil to find
lots of bits of metal and very gritty oil. Luckily
(unless your our bank manager) Geartech
had a Toyota T50 gearbox with close ratio
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (and straight cut) we agreed
a price had it stripped and freshened and
14
we had a new gearbox for the MG meeting
to go with the upgraded engine.
Three weeks out from the meeting it
was clear the engine would not be ready,
so we put the old engine back with the
reconditioned gearbox, and we were ready
to race. The old 4AGE started first time
ran all weekend used a little bit of oil and
rattled a bit up top but other than that did
not miss a beat.
The race meeting was probably the best
meeting I have been at; we were grouped
in the classics with about 35 cars in our
races. The whole meeting ran without fuss
or problems the classic group were great
to race with and over the weekend we
managed from memory a 11th 7th 5th and 3rd.
The 3rd place was the first race on
Sunday, we were the only 7 in the field and
it was raining hard. The start was delayed
because of the crash in the formula 5000
race before us, so I sat on the dummy grid
with my umbrella getting very wet, the actual
race was wet so it made our under powered
seven competitive and great fun to drive.
Anyone that has a suitable car and a
ambition to race the MG meetings are the
ideal place to have a go everyone helps
out the organization is well done and the
atmosphere is about having a good time,
and bringing your come home straight.
Our next meeting is the Manawatu Toolshed
Road & Track December 18th meeting at
Manfeild, you can enter either dual or single
sprints, or clubman races, we have raced a
lot of these meetings great fun, good value
for money and with electronic lap timing a
great place to improve your driving skills.
15
The Seventh Plague
by Patrick Harlow
“This story was originally published in March
2004 and has since been updated. Due to
the Lotus theme of this issue I thought that
it would nicely compliment the other Lotus
stories.”
The Bible talks about the ten plagues of
Egypt the eighth of which was a plague of
Locusts. It was supposed to have been the
seventh but after the sixth plague, boils, God
decided to let them have thunder and hail
for the seventh as that sounded a lot more
interesting and the locust got relegated to
number eight. Like all good plagues, once
the locusts had done their thing they went
into hiding to await another opportunity to
get out into the fresh air to create a little
havoc. To while away the time they probably
chatted about what a good time they had
and how their plague was the best and that
they should have been seventh as they would
have made a better job of it. Fancy God
putting the frogs out second. He should have
known that you could never trust foreigners,
look what they did in the war. Yep, they
definitely had a lot to talk about as it would
be two and half thousand years before they
were called upon to perform again.
Naturally over time people forgot about
them. Words and spelling changed. By the
time they emerged into the world during the
late 1950’s thanks to a certain gentleman
called Colin Chapman they were called the
Lotus and they were pretty chuffed when
Colin ranked them as a 7. For a plague that
was quite a promotion so they decided not
to worry about the spelling. At the end of
the day it was not much of a promotion as
the Lotus 7 although designed after the
Lotus 6 it was actually launched after the
16
Lotus 8 (1954 launched), after the Lotus 9
(1955) and after the Lotus 10 (1955). Colin
was a genius when it came to automotive
design but was not fussed about counting
consecutively. After two and a half thousand
years there did not seem to be much point
in making a big smell over it, you took your
opportunities where you could find them.
The Lotus 7 was launched onto the English
scene at the 1957 Earls Court Motorshow. It
was considered a replacement for the Lotus
6 which is probably no surprise to anybody,
although the 6 had been out of production
for two years. It was the 6 which had bought
attention to the small fledging car maker
due to the amount of success it was having
in club sprints and other racing events.
First sold in 1953, the Mark 6 was the first
competition Lotus to be built in any numbers.
Sold mainly in kit form the car went from
strength to strength with over a hundred
being produced. Production of the Mark 6
finished in 1955. The nimble little car had
made its point and the public began to look
for its successor. To be fair development on
the Mark 7 started sometime after the Mark 6
finished production but Colin got distracted
by other projects with an ever increasing
number such as Marks 8, 9 and 10 etc. In
actual fact number 7 was destined for a
pure formula 2 racer but due to the afore
mentioned distractions, was never built.
By the time the Mark 7 was once again
thought about the numbering system had
advanced to 15. Due to public demand
Colin looked back through his scrap
book and picked the Lotus 11 chassis to
be the basis of the Mark 7. The attractive
and streamlined body designed by Frank
Costin was scraped leaving the tube frame
sub-structure which was neatly panelled to
giving the basic Seven shape.
At the official launch of the Mark 7 at the
Earls Court Motor Show the 7 was quite
conspicuous by its absence. The car that
took pride of place on the stand was the
Lotus Elite. The 7 was only displayed in
brochure form as Colin did not consider it
as being of the same priority as the Elite.
Face it, the Elite was a fantastic looking car.
As for the 7, well it was a family show; young
children might have seen it. Nope, the 7 has
remained a car, that although better looking
than a Citroën 2CV, the words, “what a
fantastic looking car,” would never be in
the same room as it. Those words would
always find something better to do when
any discussion on this car occurred. Even
Colin Chapman never looked on the car as
anything other than a “bread and butter”
project. In later years when talking about the
7 he said that it was the type of design you
could “dash off in a weekend”.
After such an underwhelming start it was
actually the 7 which kept Lotus afloat in
those early years. The Elite proved to be very
difficult to “productionise” and the steady
flow of 7’s in kit and fully built form kept
the company in the black. In those days kits
An original restored Series 1 car. Credit: Plague
7
easily outsold turn key cars due to the high
price differential of the Purchase Tax that was
added to the purchase cost, one thousand
pounds verses five hundred pounds for the
“kit in a box”. It was sold with a 40hp Ford
100E engine giving the car a not what you
would call “sizzling” acceleration time of
just over 16 seconds from 0 to 100kph.
Although slow by today’s standards it was
great for that time. Coupled with a low
centre of gravity and cornering agility this
car became the car to beat at hill climbs and
club racing events. When production of the
series 4 Mark 7 ceased in 1973 (England,
1978 NZ) this would be down to a very
respectable 5.4 seconds.
The series 2 Mark 7 was released in 1960
and the main difference visually was the
addition of a fibreglass nosecone and wing
guards. All other changes were evolutionary
and helped to reduce production costs. This
models main claim to fame was a regular
guest spot on the TV programme “The
Prisoner” which stared Patrick McGoohan.
The series only lasted for 17 episodes but
it’s now cult status ensures that the little 7
has also gained a notoriety of its own. Many
7 owners paint their cars with the distinctive
yellow nosecone and green body made
famous by the series. Another interesting
bit of trivia is that Patrick McGoohan was
presented with a Caterham 7 painted in
“Prisoner” colours in 1990. It was chassis
“Number 6” which was the name of the
character he played in the show. So it was
a replica of a replica 7 called Number 6.
Makes perfect sense to me. Incidentally the
other automotive co-stars in the series were
Mini Moke taxies which also had a lot more
screen time than the 7.
Getting back to our story, by 1966 Lotus
had won the world formula one championship
twice and was now producing successful
17
upmarket road going cars such as the Elan.
Several people were now making their own
clubman sprints in a similar style to the Mark
7. Colin did not really see a future for the
car as he and Lotus were moving up market.
He had never been really enthusiastic about
it, but now the little beastie was refusing to
die. A steady stream of them were still going
through the factory doors. The plague had
a foothold and it was not going to let go for
anybody.
Enter Graham Nearn of Caterham Car
Sales. Although the time was ripe for the
car to pass into history as it had been in
production for almost 10 years, it had made
its mark, Colin now thought was time to call it
quits and move on to more modern projects.
But due to the pressure from Nearn the car
would continue on the understanding that
Caterham would take over sales, marketing
and support for the little car.
The series 3 was released in 1968
and although yet another evolution it was
superior to its predecessor. A new range
of Ford Crossflow engines had arrived on
the scene. The old and now hard to source
standard 10 rear axle was replaced with
much stronger Ford Escort Mexico axles.
The new 1.6 engine brought the time for the
0 to 100 kph sprint down to 7.7 seconds. At
clubman racing meetings this car was still
hard to beat and was one of the few cars
that were regularly driven to the event by
their owners and then driven home again
(hopefully) afterwards.
The beginning of the 70’s was a new era
for the Lotus 7. The car was completely
redesigned and then was released as the
series 4. Sadly this 7 is the least appreciated
these days. It came about because the
perceived wisdom at Lotus was that the
market for a “Clubman” type road going racer
had reduced and what was needed was a
18
car that could be used everyday. Humour
aside they definitely were talking about the
“Lotus 7”. Although the “Tupperware 7”
as it is now called was the most practical
in terms of space and comfort it still had a
long way to go. The new car had very little in
common with its three predecessors. In fact,
officially the car was given a different Mark
number, its correct designation being the
Lotus 60. Gone was the steel spaceframe
and aluminium body. In its place was a steel
backbone chassis, based on the Elan design,
and an all fibreglass shell. The bonnet was
now hinged rather than lift off and the driver
and passenger were more “protected from
the elements”. (More words not normally
associated with Sevens)
Existing Seven fans were somewhat
disgruntled by the departure from the
original concept but it must be said that
most of the magazine reviews of the car
were favourable. The motoring hacks looked
on the series 4 as a distinct improvement
and, what’s more, the sales rate actually
increased, lending some credence to the
basic assumption of the changing customer
base. Engine options were retained from the
series 3. Performance figures showed only
slight reduction on the earlier version, mainly
due to the higher basic weight of the car.
Purest critiques complained that the new
chassis was more flexible than the previous
cars which took the edge off its handling.
The fact that it could still out accelerate
and out drive any production car built at
that time was not a consideration for these
traditionalists. Once again, problems were
emerging for the Seven. Although the sales
rate of the series 4 was higher than for the
series 3, it wasn’t high enough to recoup the
development costs which had been greater
than anticipated. The curtain was finally
coming down on Lotus’ involvement with
Patrick McGoohan
stared in the classic
TV series ‘The
Prisioner’. Credit:
Plague 7
the Seven. Colin Chapman was now more
interested in fully built up cars.
During 1973 production of the series 4
was officially handed over to Graham Nearn
of Caterham cars. The car could not be
killed and Colin was no longer interested in
it. Production of this model only continued
for another 40 or so cars. Companies that
had previously supplied Lotus with specialist
parts were not so keen to supply Caterham
unless the price was right. The car became
too expensive to build so Caterham pulled
the plug. But not completely. The moulds
and jigs were sent off by boat out to one of
the colonies in a distant corner of the South
Pacific. Production of series 4 continued
in Christchurch until the middle of 1978.
There was a series 4 replacement, designed
in house at Steel Brothers, due to go into
production. This one was to be powered by a
turbocharged 2.0ltr Lotus Esprite motor. Due
to Steel Brothers being unable to secure an
overseas market only three or four cars were
made. Never officially called the series 5, it
was going to be called the Lotus Super 907.
One of these cars exists in Wellington and
A modern Caterham replica of the yellow and
green car used in the series ‘The Prisioner’.
Credit: Plague 7
Lotus 7 s2
19
Lotus 7 s3
Series 4 car with factory fitted hardtop. Credit:
Plague 7
The best selling 7 of all and the now least
popular. The Series 4 was nicknamed the
‘Tupperware 7’. Credit: Plague 7
Would the Lotus 907 manufactured by Steel
Brothers in Christchurch have been a worthy
successor to the Series 4. Credit: Plague 7
20
has yet to be finished. Another point had
arrived where the car should have quietly
faded into the history but the plague was not
dead merely taking another breath. This time
it was going to be a big one.
In England Caterham had already
restarted building series 3 cars. The simpler
model had a strong enthusiastic support in
England. Several The only difference this
time was that it was built under the name
Caterham and the Lotus badges were not
evident. Now early Caterhams and certain
variations of them are as desirable to own as
the original Lotus 7 is.
It has been said that Colin Chapman was
not the inventor of the basic 7 shape and
that in Colin’s youth several of these cars,
called “specials”, were being made by many
engineering apprentices using Austin 7
parts as it was a very cheap way to own a
fun car. It has also been said that Jem Marsh
who was later to found Marcos was the first
to produce 7 styled looking cars which he
called the Speedex 750. Colin never slow to
copy a good idea made the car famous.
The late seventies and beyond saw many
other companies getting onto the band
wagon and producing what purists called a
clubman sprint but was known by most as
“Lotus 7 replica”. Some companies sailed a
little too closely to the original and Westfield,
who are still one of the main competitors,
got their hand slapped by Caterham in a
widely publicised court case. Not only have
hundreds of companies throughout the
world started producing these cars, mainly
in kitset form, but several people have taken
the car back to it’s “special” roots and are
scratch-building them in there garages
again. Many companies have tried to bring
out a successor to the series 3. Some of
which were totally original and a worthy
successor but few have survived.
The seventh plague is now firmly
entrenched and has spread world wide.
If a country has a kit car industry you can
guarantee that there will certainly be at least
one company building a 7. In New Zealand I
can think of several companies which have
mass produced this car with out even trying.
They are Almac, Berkley, Chevron, Dixon,
Fraser, Gulf, Leitch, Lynx and McGregor. One
of the best selling books in this industry is a
book which gives details and plans on how to
build a car called a Locost. During one club
“Skite Night” which is held every February
I noticed about fifteen of the beasties.
All you had to do was turn your head and
sneeze and there would be another one. The
plague continues to gather fresh victims as
almost every club night somebody will stand
up and say they are building a 7 type car.
Approximate production numbers for
the Lotus 7
Series 1
450
Series 2
310
Series 3
340
Series 4
660
Numbers of 7 type cars
that have come through
the club since 1988.
(Approx.)
Currently in the club
for 2011.
(Approx.)
Almac Clubsprint
7
5
Birkin
1
0
Caterham 7
3
2
Chevron
19
3
Dutton Phaeton
1
0
Fraser Clubman
9
4
Gulf 7
2
1
Haynes Roadster
4
4
Leitch Super 7
3
2
Locost
23
5
Lotus 7
3
3
36
11
Lynx
8
1
McGregor
4
1
Piranha
3
1
Westfield
2
1
128
44
Up to 2011
Manufacturer
Lotus 7 Replicas (other)
Total
21
The Club had a visit to Junior’s in August and Eion Abernathy sent me some of the pictures
he had taken there. Unfortunately they missed getting into the September issue, but the
one opposite is just so cool, that I couldn’t let the year end without getting into the mag
somehow. – Ed.
22
MG Classic Racing at Manfeild
by Richard Kelly
Good Start! Top picture, Richard on the right.
24
The highlight of my motorsport year with my
Lotus 7 Replica for the past 10 years has
been competing at the annual MG Classic
each November. Held at Manfeild it is the
largest weekend of classic motor racing in
the North Island.
This year 317 classic and not so classic
(future classics?) racecars turned up; a
great turn out given the current economic
situation and something that the MG Car
Club can be very proud of. They put together
an excellent and supremely well-organised
weekend of racing for quite a modest entry
fee. Great work!
The cross section of cars covers everything
from the British might of MGs (of course)
Austin and the rest of BL and Rootes Group,
the mighty Formula 5000’s that shake the
ground as they go past, muscle cars and
everything else in between. If it wasn’t turning
up at a Tier 1 or 2-race meet; it was here!
Johnny Mines had a great weekend
of close racing at the pointy end of the
Historic single seaters in JRM II showing a
modern Formula Ford the way to go. It was
impressive to watch them duel, each driver
making the most of their cars strengths.
The area of my interest is the Component
Cars field where you get put if you don’t
have a roof, have a Japanese engine or have
passed too many MG’s in the past. This year our field was sadly depleted
by the Sportscar Series having a round on
the same weekend, so there were only 12
entrants in my class. Unfortunately there
were no other 1600cc cars in the group,
which was a pity given that two of our club
members were there in their 1600cc 7’s but
even though they are faster and newer than
my 1982 car Grant Robinson and Jonathan
Hogg were allowed to play with the Classic
Saloons. Hopefully they’ll be with us next
year? Maybe Dave Beazer will join us too
after this year spinning and being collected
by an Escort at the hairpin?
There is something to say about being
on the track with similar cars and the plus
being in with the component car group,
the standard of racing is generally high,
which resulted in some close racing for
me passing the Chevron of Paul Dickson
on most corners only to have him drive the
2l Toyota powered car past me on every
straight. It made for huge smiles and some
good in car video.
The weekend was typical of Manfeild, with
rain, sun and wind with only the sun being
in short supply. Every time a group of cars
without roofs lined up on the dummy grid
you can be sure the skies opened. Sigh…
This led to a disaster for the F5000 grid
when the track went from dry to very wet on
their warm up lap and saw a major three car
crash at the start of the race. Kiwi veteran
driver Kenny Smith came out the worst, his
just rebuilt car destroyed against the wall
trapping him inside for quite a while. I’m
pleased to say all the drivers escaped injury
of every thing except bank accounts.
The Central Districts Muscle Car group
seemed to have a goal of oiling down the
whole track over the weekend with a lot of
engine failures and off track excursions.
The efforts of the big bangers (and many
of the other classics I’m sure) gave as much
grip to the track as you’d find on a finely
polished floor wearing soap shoes. Wet
an slippery conditions gave me the best
result of the weekend with a 5th place finish
showing that high horse power is not always
the answer.
The track improved right the way through
the weekend and by the last race on Sunday
I equaled my best lap time at 1:24. Nice! I
was also very happy to see from the in car
video that I was consistently faster through
25
Yes, it’s handicap start, but being in front is still being in front
Dave Beaser and John Mines in the pits
Jonathan Hogg
The Black 7’s
John Mines, always number 23, at work
26
JRM II and S47
the corners than the more powerful cars that
whooshed past on the straights. Great fun!
The weekend brought some food for
thought for me. Since I really enjoy close
racing I think it is time to say good-bye to my
trusty 7 and to move to something different.
I’ve owned and raced my car since 1998
and it is fully sorted, but I can’t fit a bigger
engine to go faster and the HP is already
good at over 130hp at the wheels.
But since I always end up being up
against the big boys it might be time to join
them or try something completely different.
We’ll see. It’s sad to think that this might be
my last MG classic.
I hope you enjoy the photos from the
weekend. In car video is available too at
www.youtube.com/richard7k.
Richard Kelly
Grant Robinson
F5000 Before
F5000 After
27
This month’s mystery motor-man ANSWER
And the mystery face: John Zachary DeLorean
Born in Detroit Michigan January 6, 1925, his father was Zachary DeLorean, a
Romanian immigrant, who worked as a millwright at Ford Motor Co. After his discharge from the US services at the end of WW2, John worked as a draftsman for The
Public Lighting Company in Detroit and then studied engineering at Lawrence Tech.
He then took a job at Chrysler and Studied at the Chrysler institute gaining a master’s
degree in automotive engineering.
Then on to Packard Motor Company in the R&D department, working on a new
automatic transmission the ‘Ultramatic’. He became head of R&D at Packard.
In his early 30’s he went to work as a design engineer for GM at their Pontiac division, where he designed the recessed wiper concept (in response to the problem of the
new automated roller brush car washers
that were frequently ripping the windshield wipers off most cars). In 1961 he
became Pontiac’s chief engineer and came
up with the idea of putting a 389ci V8
with triple two barrel carbs into his daily
ride, a Pontiac Tempest, he convinced the
head of Pontiac to offer this concept as a
production model and hence the Pontiac
GTO was born at the end of 1963.
DeLorean at 40 became the youngest divisional head in G.M. history when he was
appointed president of the Pontiac division in 1965. Eventually, he was moved to head
the troubled Chevrolet Div., the biggest and most important component of G.M. He successfully reorganized Chevrolet out of a slump, and was named vice president of car and
truck production, a stepping-stone to the presidency of the entire company. (In 1979 he
published an exposé of his time at the company – On a Clear Day, You Can See General
Motors. The book would eventually sell over million-and-a-half copies.)
DeLorean’s dream of creating his own company finally became a reality when the
British government of Margaret Thatcher came up with nearly 100 million pounds
in financing to build a factory in Northern Ireland to produce a DeLorean-designed
futuristic sports-car, which would be known as “The De Lorean”. The car, with 304
grade stainless steel body and gull-wing doors hearkening back to the 1960 Mercedes
coupe, later would be immortalized in the Back to the Future (1985) movie trilogy.
The car company that bore his name went
bankrupt. In 1982, a desperate John DeLorean
was trapped in a sting operated by the F.B.I. and
charged with trafficking in cocaine, to raise money
to refinance his car company. The DeLorean Moter
Company collapsed in 1983. By the time of his
death of a stroke in March 2005, at the age of 80,
he was largely a forgotten man.
28
Visit to Speedtech
by Matt Bull
Andre preaching to the converted
On Thursday 17 November, thirty-odd club
members made their way to the headquarters
of Speedtech Motorsport (STM). The owner,
Andre Simon gave us a history on his ten
years in the aftermarket tuning business.
Andre’s entry into the market came after
completing a Bachelor of Technology at
Massey University, while working on his
master’s degree. At the time his father had
a modified BMW 3 Series which wasn’t
running well. Andre spent a few evenings
working on the engine management,
and produced some impressive results.
A number of his father’s fellow car club
members with similar set-ups then called on
Andre to work on their cars. After finding a
lot of enjoyment and satisfaction in tuning
aftermarket vehicles, Andre took the plunge,
quit his studies, and opened up shop.
Andre’s initial focus was on Mitsubishi
Evos and, just to show he wasn’t a one
brand wonder, Subaru Imprezas. He gained
a following internationally and, along with
tuning an array of vehicles in the land of
the long white (tyre smoke) cloud, travels
the globe to work on clients cars. He is
also a regular contributor to a number of
New Zealand and Australian motoring
publications.
After gaining and holding the world
record for four wheel drive drag cars in his
Mitsi Evo 3, Andre retired his car. The drag
racing mantra ‘there is no replacement for
displacement’ led to a focus on the General
Motors LSx series of engines.
Why the LSx series? Well, being American
there is massive aftermarket support and the
technology used to tune them is unbeatable.
The engine configuration is relatively small
allowing for fitment to a huge range of
vehicles, and it has the added advantage
of being lightweight as well. And because
29
they are relatively common, the LSx engines
make a cost effective option for engine
swaps. Consequently there is a massive
client demand both domestically, and
internationally.
About three years ago, development of
the STM 2006 Holden Commodore SS,
fitted with a 6.0L L98 V8 LS2 began in
earnest. From this test mule, there are now
three recognised stages of development
commercially available to the public.
Before committing to minor modifications,
an initial re-flash of the stock ECU resulted
in improved performance and economy.
Re-flashing, rather than replacing the ECU,
eliminates cut wires, keeps safety margins in
check, maintains OEM engine management
hardware and control, and enables fault
code management.
Out of the box, the 2006 Commodore SS
boasts an advertised 270kW at the flywheel.
The test mule was hooked up to the dyno
The project Commodore
30
when first purchased. With 70,000km on
the clock, and allowing for approximately
15% loss for the drive train, the stock SS
still posted a credible 235kW at the rear
wheels. This was the benchmark for the
development that followed.
Stage one development of the 6.0L
LS2 V8 coupled the ECU re-flash with a
K&N drop in panel filter, and a 3” X-Force
Cat Back Exhaust. This resulted in a more
aggressive exhaust note, improved economy,
and a slight boost in measured performance
across the curve, to a peak of 257kW.
Stage two takes the stage one mods, and
adds X-Force stainless headers, removes
the catalytic converters with STM Decat
pipes and adds a VCM Suite OTR (over
the radiator) cold air intake. Incredibly, this
further improves the economy and really
delivers a perfect all rounder performance
street car. At 282kW peak output, there is
plenty of mumbo to this jumbo.
Taking it from mild to really wild, stage
three adds Kelford upgraded camshafts in
conjunction with up-rated valve springs and
a double row timing chain. This provides for
mind blowing performance and that hard
to disguise V8 Supercar idle. With 367kW
available at the rear wheels, who needs a
supercharger?
Prices start from $1295 for an initial ECU
reflash, through to about ten grand for the
full stage three kit as described here. But
given a new Commodore GTS retails at more
than $35k over a stock SS, investing in an
SS, and upgrading it provides a competitive
alternative. Suddenly making impressive
and reliable performance gains seems very
reasonable indeed.
What sets STM apart from other after
market tuners? Well, while they maintain a
workshop the average enthusiast would be
familiar with and the team at STM work on
performance cars all day every day. So they
have both the experience and equipment
to delivery what their customers demand.
Particularly for road going cars where
reliability is as important as performance,
they use genuine manufacture parts. For
piece of mind, they are a MTA Assured
repairer, so can maintain vehicles to MTA
warranty standards. And with added piece
of mind with their pricing promise, its
not surprise they were voted Aftermarket
Industry “Shop of the Year” in 2011.
And despite the current economic
climate, the team at STM has recently grown
to seven, showing that there is an evergrowing demand for their services. If you’re
running an LSx, or any other fuel injected,
turboed or supercharged engine that is up
to ten years old, don’t hesitate to give Andre
and his team a call.
By the way, if you’re interested, the test
Commodore is available for a test drive by
arrangement.
Contact:
Andre
Speedtech
Unit 7 / 115 Gracefield Road
Seaview, Lower Hutt, Wellington 5010,
Phone – 04 586 6384
31
Lotus 7 Series 4 1973 to 1978
by Patrick Harlow
Although many people know that the New
Zealand was at one time the only producer
of Lotus cars outside of England only a
few know that it came about through the
passion of an accountant by the name of
David Dixon.
David worked for Steel Bros in
Christchurch as the company secretary
from the 60s through to the 70s. Since the
founding of Steel Bros in the early 1900s the
company had produced transport equipment
and tended to concentrate mainly on truck
bodies and trailers as well as heavy transport
based machinery. After building about 5,000
truck cabs and bodies the opportunity arose
to build the Prince Gloria in early 1964. At
this point Steel Motor Assemblies Ltd. Was
formed and became fully involved in serious
car production joining the huge number of
car plants that had started up at that time.
By 1967 they were building Toyota, Nissan
and Mazda vehicles. They would go onto
build tens of thousands of Toyota cars and
trucks. By 1977 Steel Bros NZ Ltd. were only
producing the Lotus 7 car. It is initially hard
to understand how the little niche market car
ever made it into production. I have included
its story because despite being built by a
major car producer, just over 100 cars were
produced mainly by hand in a similar manner
to all the other cars in this book and through
the enthusiasm of one individual.
In the late 60s it was virtually impossible
to buy a new car in New Zealand unless you
had overseas funds. The number of Hiab
cranes that Steels were given a licence to
import could be increased by the amount of
New Zealand made content included in the
car and by the amount of overseas funds they
were able to earn in exports. David Dixon
believed that it would be possible to build
a car with a fibreglass body and a separate
steel chassis locally. The car he wanted was
the Lotus Elan, having done the maths he
was certain that Steel Bros could build the
car with a high New Zealand content. The
Cars being built in the
Christchurch factory
Credit: D Dixon
32
Despite the fact that Steel Bros mass produced
many other cars the Lotus 7 was very much a
cottage industry approach Credit: D Dixon
A couple of cars outside the Steel Bros factory
Credit: D Dixon
car could be sold more cheaply than the
MGB in Australia which at that time was
the only volume sports car readily available.
David was sure that they could increase
the New Zealand content to almost 50% of
the car which was twice the amount other
manufactures were achieving. If it reached
the target of 50% then it could be sold duty
free to the Australian market
David contacted Colin Chapman, the
CEO and founder of Lotus, who was
positive about the idea and sent over his
Pacific Sales manager Ron Richardson to
discuss a deal in 1969. Not expecting such
a quick response David quickly borrowed an
Elan from an old school friend to evaluate
how easy it would be to produce. The
project was deemed to be feasible despite
the complexity of the Elan. A deal was made
and Steel started to consider how they were
going to produce the car. Unfortunately
due to liquidity problems in England Lotus
Cars had been forced to become a public
company and because finances were tight
it was deemed no longer possible for them
to allocate resources to make Elan parts for
New Zealand
That was the bad news, the good news
was that Colin Chapman had never liked the
Lotus 7 and was looking for an opportunity
to stop producing it. They offered the Series
4 Lotus 7 to New Zealand and Rod Steel of
Steel Bros made the courageous decision
to take it on. David Dixon again negotiated
with Ron Richardson and in 1972 two cars
were imported from the UK for a feasibility
study. One car became the company car for
David Dixon and was his daily runner until he
accidentally wrote it off 25,000 kilometres
later. The other car was stripped down to
its component parts so that production
decisions could be made. In mid 1973 Lotus
announced that their production of the
Lotus 7 would cease and they would sell all
their remaining parts at discount. Caterham
in the UK took some of these parts and the
rights to continue Lotus 7 production in the
UK but they were not allowed to use the
Lotus name. Steel Bros purchased sufficient
components, jigs and moulds to build 50
cars in New Zealand. They also had the
rights to use the Lotus name and became
the only Lotus manufacturer based outside
the UK. They ultimately bought 100 twin
cam engines and Ford 2000E gearboxes
along with a healthy supply of Ford Escort
differentials and steering racks. Triumph
provided Herald steering columns and
33
suspension uprights whilst Lucas supplied
the instruments. The engines and gearboxes
were purchased in two batches of 50 with
the first batch being surplus from Elan
production and the second 50 engines from
the Europa production facility. Caterham
would build only 37 Series 4 cars before
reverting to the less complex Series 3 cars
which they still build to this day.
In Christchurch production of the cars
began in a sub-factory in Buchanans
Road. The first few cars were built from
component kits which gave Steel the
opportunity to build a couple of chassis’
using the Lotus jigs, evaluate them and
to make some improvements such as
reinforcing the engine bay and making
the front suspension towers from heavier
gauge steel. The Christchurch boat makers
CrestaCraft were subcontracted to produce
the fibreglass components while all the steel
fabrication work was done in house. The
first cars were finished in December 1973
and received much acclaim from the local
press. At $4,300 dollars each they were a
similar price to the Holden HQ but with an
acceleration time of 5.2 seconds from zero to 100 km/h (Holden HQ with 3.3ltr motor
took 13.1 seconds 0 - 100km/h). Even with
a 1600cc motor they were in a supercar
league in both performance and handling.
Locally produced content of the car was
75% which made the government quite
happy. In fact two prime ministers went
for rides in the car; Bill Rowling in 1974
and Robert Muldoon in 1976. During its
production run several other improvements
were made to the car such as a detachable
fibreglass roof. Items that would have
represented ultimate luxury on its British
equivalent were included in the New Zealand
version for example: a fully trimmed interior,
elasticated pockets to store oddments, floor
34
Prime Minister Robert Muldoon goes for a drive
Credit: D Dixon
carpet and even a lockable boot lid.
In 1975 production was transferred to
the main Steel Bros site at Treffers Road
where the factory still exists today where
the company now trades under the name
Steelbro. Fibreglass production shifted to
Prebble Fibreglass and cars rolled out of the
factory at a rate of two per month. The 70s
oil crisis did not dent its popularity and it was
not long before several of these cars were
making their mark on race tracks around the
country. It is believed that 98 cars were built
at the Steel Bros plant before supply of the
engines dried up. All were fully assembled
and ready to drive. Of these 8 were sold in
Australia. Steel Bros were faced with either
stopping production entirely or using Toyota
engines. David Dixon suggested using the
new Lotus 2 ltr 16 valve motor. For David
continuing to use a Lotus motor ensured
that they could keep putting the all important
Lotus badge on the bonnet as this was the
key to unlock overseas markets. The new
engine would mean a major redesign of the
car so work began on a version which would
be produced as the Lotus Super 907.
Bibliography
Thanks to David Dixon, Allan Dick
Pictures from D Dixon, P Harlow and
R West
Apart from the wheels
and the roll cage
this car belonging
to Warrick Marshall
is almost the same
as when it left the
factory.
Many of these
cars were raced as
they were highly
competitive. Warrick’s
dashboard reflects
some changes that
were made to get it
race ready.
All credit on this
page: P Harlow
35
Wiring Woes
by Phil Bradshaw
Over the past 18 months I have had a
succession of recalcitrant engines refusing
to fire up after I have wired them. Must be
losing my touch…
First up was the RWD AE86 style 4AGE
that I was originally going to put into the 105E
Anglia project. Last time I messed with one of
these was 1997- that fact alone should have
told me something. My first mistake was buying in effect a long motor, and then acquiring
a bunch of parts to complete the engine and
gearbox assembly over the next few weeks
from various sources off TradeMe.
It might have cost me less physically to go
this route but the final emotional toll was high!
Long story short when it came time to fire
it up it simply wouldn’t start. Protracted fault
finding resulted in the discovery of not only
a dead distributor (that I ultimately managed
to make one good unit from two) but also a
dead coil/igniter assembly (that I managed to
substitute a later model unit for). Fortunately
I have all the factory information on fault
finding and diagnosis for these engines, in
addition to the information on how to test
and set up the various items.
Next was a 1UZ-FE Lexus V8 with auto
transmission I was wiring for a friend’s hotrod
project. The wiring actually went pretty well
until the engine arrived in Auckland when it
steadfastly refused to go. It ended up being
an ECU plug that hadn’t been pushed fully
home when the engine was unpacked and
set back up for running, but that took some
time for my friend to find.
After that was the Altezza 3SGE BEAMS 4
cylinder engine and 6 speed manual gearbox
that I threw into the Anglia (having decided to
upgrade from the 4AGE mentioned above).
I hadn’t wired one of these before, and
36
given that the engine appears to have only
been sold new in Japan the only wiring info
available is a limited number of pages online
that have been translated from Japanese.
Fortunately I was able to source the full
wiring information in English for the export
models. Although these run a completely
different 6 cylinder engine many of the
circuits are fundamentally similar. As a result
I cobbled up a patch loom for the engine
which used about twice the number of relays
needed for a 1UZ; this was mainly because of
the drive by wire system the engine employs.
I hadn’t wired one of these systems
before, but did the best I could with the
information available – so you can imagine
my consternation when Russell Ashley and I
went to start the motor up for the first time
and it absolutely refused to do anything. Of
course, the issue is vastly complicated when
you have a wiring design that in theory should
work, but is totally unproven. This feeling of
unease is not helped when you have found
errors in the past in Mr Toyota’s diagrams…
What made this particularly baffling was
that none of the relays were triggering, even
those that were fed from the key as opposed
to from the ECU. After a good couple of
hours of messing about we discovered
that the alloy inlet manifold (where we had
attached the master earth for all the relays to
a handy bolt) was completely insulated from
the engine (and therefore chassis earth) by
the inlet manifold gasket.
The good news is once we relocated the
earth the engine fired up immediately and
idled perfectly. The bad news was it simply
refused to rev. Long story short the BEAMS
motor is incredibly fussy when it comes to
inlet air turbulence. The modifications we
did to remove the factory air box from the
air flow meter (they are an integrated unit)
disrupted the airflow to the extent that the
engine simply won’t run properly. It appears
that the right type of aftermarket pod filter
adapter kit solves the problem, although we
need to road test to be sure.
Just to keep me on my toes I received
a call one evening from a guy in Bluff who
put a 1UZ into a Hilux about 3 years ago.
Unfortunately a minor modification to the
truck resulted in an engine bay fire that
destroyed the engine wiring loom. Since
I had wired it initially, he asked if I could
provide a plug in replacement if he sent me
the burnt loom and a replacement. I said I’d
give it a go and shortly thereafter a large
(and somewhat smoky smelling) cardboard
box materialised on my doorstep.
Unfortunately there are some small but
significant differences in the various 1UZ
engine looms, and the replacement one
he provided was different to the one that
had been destroyed. I ended up having to
reconfigure the new one to match the old
one, plus recreate the ‘patch’ loom that
interfaces with the vehicle. Fortunately I had
kept the notes I made when I did the original
wiring, so it wasn’t too difficult in the grand
scheme of things.
I sent the loom back south and received a
call back a couple of weeks later saying that
the engine wouldn’t run. It became apparent
that the ignition system wasn’t working
properly; ultimately the culprit turned out to
be a terminal that had retracted in a connector
– the terminal locking tabs get brittle with age
and can break off, although once connected
the terminals seem to stay in place.
Whilst I was reconfiguring the replacement
loom for the burnt out one, Matthew Porritt
was modifying in parallel a loom for the 1UZ in
his sportscar project. Matthew had a cut loom,
which he repaired by splicing in a section
of a suitable Celica loom, reconfigured as
required. The splicing exercise had the added
bonus of enabling the loom to be tailored to
the exact length required. The downside was
I was distracted repairing the other loom and
as a result Mathew had to re-do a couple of
areas. Oops!
We ended up tracing every wire once the
loom was completed (in reality only about 30
wires as the engine is running a manual trans
and hence we removed all redundant wiring)
to be sure any errors had been resolved. This
only served to make it more confusing when
Matthew rang to say his engine wouldn’t
run properly. Ultimately it proved to be a coil
plug that wasn’t completely home.
Finally there is my Toyota 1GZ-FE V12
saga, that hasn’t reached its conclusion yet,
and is worthy of a tale all of its own, in due
course… I so need to stick to my day job!
37
Lotus Super 907 1977 to 1981
by Patrick Harlow
By 1978 Lotus were no longer producing
a 1600 twincam engine and Steel Bros, of
Christchurch, who had already built about
98 Series 4 Lotus 7 were pondering what to
do next. David Dixon, the company secretary,
who had spearheaded the Lotus project, was
keen to keep the Lotus spirit alive. However,
Lotus was now building a two litre engine,
called the 907, which they were putting into
the Esprit and the Elite. Unfortunately this
motor was too big to fit into their current 7
chassis. It was also 30 kilograms heavier.
The easy bit was convincing Steel
Bros management to proceed with the
investigative work required. The not so
easy bit was finding a Lotus two litre motor
because at that time there were no local
cars powered by this engine. David learned
of a Jensen Healy that was running round
Christchurch that was owned by local
businessman Angus Tait. He generously
allowed the Steel Bros team to measure his
907 motor. The engineers discovered that if
they lengthened the current Lotus 7 chassis
by 125mm it would be quite feasible to
continue building a Lotus 7 styled car with
the new engine.
David Dixon and Rod Steel (Managing
Director of Steel Bros) travelled to England
and then to America to investigate the
possibility of an export market there. In
England they approached Mike Kimberley
of Lotus Cars who agreed to look at
the possibility of providing the engines.
Consequently a Lotus Elite and a Lotus
Esprit were imported into New Zealand
along with two engines, transmissions
and a selection of parts that would allow
development to proceed.
David, along with three Steels Bros
engineers, started the lengthy task of turning
the existing 7 chassis and body moulds into
The restyled Super 907 prototype that was sent to America Credit: D Dixon
38
something that could take the new motor.
Once again the standard Ford Escort and
Triumph running gear was used to transmit
the power to the road. Besides a lot more
horsepower one major improvement that
came with the new motor was a five speed
gearbox. The key visual difference when
comparing the first 907 and the earlier series
4 car, aside from its additional length, is the
greatly enlarged bonnet bulge. The new
motor was too tall for the existing bonnet and
even when the motor was tilted over by 45
degrees a much bigger bulge was required.
Other minor changes were made to the foot
- wells to clear the wider bell housing.
By 1978 the first prototype was ready and
was tested by Robin Curtis who reported
his findings in a May 1978 edition of
Motoraction. He was very impressed with the
car and called it a super car that he would be
happy for his mother-in-law to take shopping.
However, one feature did not impress him,
that being the lack of room in the foot wells
and he reported finding it very difficult to
move his large feet around the pedals.
Steel Bros were already aware of this and
had begun work on a new chassis that was
100mm wider.
The next car built with the wider chassis
was still classically styled but was Left Hand
Drive for evaluation in the tough American
market. The car was assembled with a federal
version of the original two engines imported
from Britain. This prototype was sent to Dan
Weatherly in California to be tested for their
EDA and Dot regulations. Success was such
that an order for 1000 cars was placed and
six dealers were found that were prepared
to sell the cars throughout California. A final
meeting was held in America between David
Dixon, Rod Steel, Mike Kimberly and Roger
Putnan of Lotus, and Dan Weatherly where
the project was given the green light.
Sadly it was around this time that things
started to change for the worse. Rod Steel
and the Board of Directors had heard of a
mass law suit against Ford Motor Company
in which Ford had to pay out millions due to
a fault with one of there cars. David hearing
of there nervousness managed to secure
liability insurance from a San Francisco
insurance broker by the name if Marsh
McLennan of $1,000,000 per claim which
was a lot of insurance for an $11,000 car.
Back home things were also taking a bit
of a down turn with new safety legislation
imposed by the Government rendering the
car illegal as a production vehicle. It did
not have adequate side impact protection,
anti-burst locks and several other items that
required a major redesign. With all these
potential complications Steel Bros decided
to cease Lotus production in New Zealand.
Unfortunately, due to his total passionate
belief that they could produce the car in New
Zealand, David had already placed an order
for the first shipment of thirty 907 engine
and gearbox assemblies from Lotus cars
and 100 Pirelli P7 tyres. As these purchases
did not have the support of Rod Steel, David
had to leave the company.
Still not willing to witness the cars’ demise
David committed to put things right by
offering to purchase the production rights
from Steel Bros for $50,000. To achieve
this he formed a new company called
New Zealand Automakers along with the
American Dan Weatherly. However before
he could procure the rights to build the car
he had to secure sufficient investment to set
up a complete car production facility which
ran to about $300,000. Unfortunately he
was not able to find investors for the total
amount and the deal fell through.
Arthur Harrison then took over as the
Super 907 project leader. He decided it was
39
First 907 out of the
factory
Credit: D Dixon
The first Super 907 prototype is on the right
Credit: D Dixon
The production ready Super 907 resembles the
Lotus 7 in looks only. All dimensions have been
changed. Credit: D Dixon
Australia Bound 907 Credit: D Dixon
America bound Super 907 Credit: D Dixon
40
time to move the Seven concept forward and
so development commenced on a new body.
Whilst based on the new chassis, the new
fully enclosed bodywork, revised styling and
refinement meant that it would appeal to the
American market. David Williams of Studio
Agulia was commissioned to design the new
car which was built by the Seven production
team at Steel Bros. The new body style was
a natural evolution of the Lotus 7 shape. The
chassis was lengthened a further 75mm to
give more room in the cockpit area which
allowed room for an adjustable seat. The
car was wider at the rear wheel arches and
incorporated a Cortina differential, whilst at
the front the Triumph uprights were replaced
again by Cortina items making for a front
that was wider, longer and heavier than
those previously produced. The prototype
was sent to America for evaluation where it
received very little positive feedback. A second car with the new body style was
built and unlike the prototype was fully road
worthy although still left-hand drive. This car
is the red car shown in the photographs, it is
still fully roadworthy and based in Auckland
now. A third car was started that was going
to be right hand drive but it was never
completed. Production ceased in 1983.
The thirty Lotus 907 engines were all sold,
after a period time, to motoring enthusiasts
and appeared on race tracks for several
years. The Pirelli tyres went to Australia.
Discounting the prototype there were four
or five Super 907 cars built with the Series
4 style body and one road going car with the
longer chassis and radically changed body.
Bibliography
Thanks to David Dixon, Ray Edwards,
Allan Dick
Photos by P Harlow and others provided
by D Dixon
From the top: The only road going version of the
restyled car now resides in Auckland
Boot of the Super 907 is lockable
Dashboard of the Auckland car
David Dixon sitting in the car he inspired
All credit: P Harlow
41